The second half of the semester might have gone a little bit downhill for #BCM325‘s and my relationship. Self motivation and subject engagement definitely took dip, but, this just creates more room for improvement in the future. Let the compilation of Week 6’s through to Week 11’s tweets begin.
Blade Runner 2049
Week sixes screening of Blade Runner is where things started to go a little pear shaped for me. I had one okay thought about the symbolism of purity which is a common motif in science fiction movies and their relationship with nature. There wasn’t a huge amount of interaction, but I find that unless the philosophical stuff is really profound – it gets less hype.
I had a great deal more likes and retweets than original thoughts for this screening. Live tweeting with such a large cohort I have noticed gives me some performance anxiety. When there are some really great finds and thoughts like the retweets below, it can give me some doubt. Anyways, that is a me problem that I need to work on.
The Matrix
The Matrix was a good screening for me tweet wise, I found it less than a mess than the week before. I relied a little bit more on the relatability aspect of tweets and less on subject content which was a consistent flaw I had in earlier weeks of the semester.
I am however pretty proud of the below tweet. Fast fashion is going to be such a large detriment to the future world, and it is so interesting to see such a mainstream company take reference from science fiction themes.
Coming from no background of Matrix knowledge, what other students thought were basic tweets were actually super helpful for me to see. There is a little bit of an expectation to pull out some super great ideas, but for those of us who don’t really know what’s going on – this type of knowledge is great for sharing.
Alita: Battle Angel
Going through my tweets for the screening of Alita: Battle Angel, the interaction levels from other students was pretty low. I thought that the below thread might conjure up some replies, but it was just me talking to myself which is what normally ends up happening. Bella did reply though which was nice
I shared this really underdeveloped thought during the screening, that did not get any engagement which I can see why.
After some weeks of letting it marinate, and coming across a new term, it actually makes this tweet kind of relevant so I decided to include it for some context. The term for why she was a “a little creepy” is the idea of uncanny valley. I thought it was a super interesting find so it became a mini thread.
Some honourable mentions in regards to my retweets for this week were from Danielle, Josephine and Serena. All super interesting and engaging tweets that I wanted to share.
Ready Player One
Weeks ten and eleven are when I had to back-tweet and missed the actual screenings. So the tweets for Ready Player One did not get a whole deal of real time engagement, since they were not during real time. I decided to do a thread about Gamergate, and how it impacted the films reception from the public.
My tweets personally lacked super clear futurology questioning, which I found that other students had really nailed. I think that environment of tweeting outside the right timeframe can be quite an odd experience. I have included some of my favourite retweets below – and I think they pose excellent discussion ideas that I lacked.
Robot and Frank
Now for the final screening of the semester, Robot and Frank. Like the above, I missed out on interacting with everyone at the correct time. I really appreciated the light-hearted change of pace from depressing dystopian futures.
Concluding Thoughts
It is quite clear that I personally struggled with the live tweeting, with emphasis on the last two weeks in particular. A self pity party is not necessary, but I think it is important to recognise that it was done pretty poorly. So, what did I do well? I think keeping with the ideas from my first tweet summary, funnier tweets that had some futurist thinking but not too academically worded were my best performing tweets. While being comedic is well received, in order to still be relevant to the subject, course concepts should be included more frequently in the future.
It can be difficult to put portray ideas in a way that is inviting for others to discuss, but it is possible. In the future, focusing on ideas that are not just observations is a more engaging route to take. Refining these skills will be an important thing to do before breaking out into the industry of digital media – and I think was a great subject exercise for us to learn that.
PAIGE SUTTON 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
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